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Cold War Colder Than Most Thought

Yes, the Cold War is colder than you thought. AOL News’ Andrea Stone looks into a practice many thought was a thing of the past between the U.S. and Russia.

By Andrea StoneAOL News

WASHINGTON— The news of a suspected suburban spy ring couldn’t have come at a worse time. Just days before, President Barack Obama stood beside Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the White House and declared they had “succeeded in resetting” the relationship between the two former Cold War rivals.

Perhaps something got lost in the translation.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, condemned the arrests and said he hoped “that all the positive gains that have been achieved in our relationship will not be damaged by the recent event.”

Just because relations have thawed between the two countries, though, is no reason to stop spying on each other.

“Espionage is a fixture of international politics, for better or worse,” said Charles Kupchan, former director of European Affairs at the National Security Council. The presence of the spies “is disturbing and comes at a very awkward moment, … but this news is hardly a bombshell or a sign that Russia is behaving in a way that constitutes a dramatic departure from the norm.”